*** David Holmes

LETS GET KILLED

(A&M)

Most tourists visit New York City armed with cameras and theater tickets, but Irish DJ David Holmes spent his last vacation at the Big Apple armed with a DAT recorder and plenty of acid. The resultant electronic soundscape, Lets Get Killed, pays tribute to the gritty ambiance of the metropolis, complete with the street sounds of strung-out drug addicts, effeminate fortune tellers, angry moshers, and street musicians. These native voices form the bedrock for songs that are then embellished with scratched-up funk 45s, drum 'n' bass rhythms, guitar whines, and the occasional 40-piece symphony. When the voices fade, the remaining digital vibrations are set to an unhurried beat to produce a cinematic soundtrack for the city that conjures images of poorly lit streets and broken glass (the title track) and a dark corner in a Latin music club ("Gritty Shaker").

Elsewhere, Holmes pays tribute to '70s espionage films, including James Bond ("Radio 7"), in less adventurous tracks that rely too heavily on mainstream club clichés -- digital beats layered with repetitive samples. Yet he instills the music with a sense of place and feeling, qualities that are too often lost on the techno dance floor.

-- Ian Pervil